HOTELS
Hotel Owner Questions: Rate Setting, Room Mix and Cash Control
The front desk gives a walk-in guest a rate off the cuff, a travel desk calls with its own agreed rate, and the booking platform shows a third. By evening the owner is looking at a full house and no clear idea which rooms earned what.
We look at the hotel as a business with rooms, restaurant, banquets and staff: how rates are set and who may change them, how channels are compared, how departments report to you. Not part of our work: guest service standards, fire rules or licences.
Discuss your priorities ↗COMMON CHALLENGES
The pressures
we often see.
- 01Rates given at the desk vary by who is on shift, and the owner sees only the day's total, not how often the rack rate was discounted.
- 02Most of the bookings come through online platforms that take a commission, yet no one compares what a direct booking and a platform booking each leave after costs.
- 03Housekeeping, laundry and amenities are bought and used without a per-room consumption figure, so cost per occupied room is a guess.
- 04The restaurant, banquet and rooms are run as separate worlds, and income is lumped together in one account with no department-wise result.
- 05Season swings are met with panic discounting, because the owner has no written floor rate below which a room should not be sold.
OUR FOCUS AREAS
Where the work
usually starts.
- 01Rate card by room type and season, with a floor rate and a named person allowed to go below rack
- 02Booking source report: direct, platform, travel agents and corporate, with commission and net rate side by side
- 03Cost per occupied room covering linen, laundry, amenities, power and housekeeping hours
- 04Department sheet for rooms, restaurant and banquet with their own costs and sales
- 05Corporate and travel agent rate agreements with validity dates and payment terms
- 06Night audit routine and cash handover, signed by the shift in charge
- 07Housekeeping checklist and room-turn rota matched to check-out times
- 08Maintenance log for rooms taken out of sale, with a date for returning them
START THIS WEEK
Things you can do
before you call anyone.
- Take last month's bookings and sort them by source. For each, note the rate quoted and the commission or discount. Look at what actually came to the hotel.
- Hypothetical example: a room sold at ₹3,500 through a platform with a 18% commission leaves ₹2,870. A direct booking at ₹3,200 leaves more. Redo this with your own rates and commissions.
- Write a floor rate for each room type for the quietest month and give it to the front desk team in writing.
- Ask the housekeeping supervisor to note linen and amenity use per occupied room for one week.
A PRACTICAL ENGAGEMENT
Start with the priorities
that matter most.
We begin by understanding how your business runs today, find the gaps, and agree the scope in writing. Recommendations are shaped around your team, your resources and your goals.
- A rate and discount policy sheet listing who may offer what, and the floor rate for each season
- A weekly owner dashboard on one page: occupancy, average rate, source of bookings, cash and outstanding dues
- A department-wise monthly result format for rooms, food and banquets, with shared costs split by a written rule
- A night audit and shift handover checklist for the front office team
Not the right fit when: Hold off if the property has a licence, fire-safety or ownership dispute pending. Take that to the right professionals first.
Explore a business audit ↗LET’S MOVE YOUR BUSINESS FORWARD
